One Week Before Christmas

Christmas is in seven days.  We always put our Christmas decorations out on Thanksgiving weekend.  That's one of my favorite things.  It's like meeting old friends.  On this week before Christmas, I'm going to share some of them.

This is my very favorite Christmas decoration.  When I was a teenager, I cleaned house for an older lady who attended our church.  She had traveled widely and had once worked at the Library of Congress. Her apartment was filled with all sorts of interesting objects that she'd collected. That Christmas, she had me get out boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations and we decorated her whole apartment.  This was amazing to me since our family's only decorating involved Daddy cutting a pine or cedar out of the field and us putting our few decorations on it.   Maybe because I was so awed by all of her beautiful things, she told me I could pick any of her decorations that I wanted for my own.  This is a 3-dimensional paper nativity scene.  Out of all the things I could have picked, I have no idea why I chose a paper nativity scene.  I've had it for over 40 years now and it's showing its age just like I am, but it's a wonderful reminder to me of a gracious, generous lady.